Paesaggi e società medievali nell'Alto Ebro: gestione culturale del bosco ed economia tra VI e XVI secolo

Abstract

The present thesis has as its object the Ebro High Basin landscapes and the societies which built them, through an anthracological point of view. More specifically, the thesis deals with the strategies of selection and use of wood, the disposal of charred wooden remains, the practices adopted for the forests' exploitation and maintenance, the dynamics of the arboreal vegetation, the structure and distribution of the fundamental elements of the landscape (such crops, grass pastures, wooden pastures, orchards and woods) and finally the way all the mentioned elements are linked to the political, social and economic transformations the region experimented during the Middle Ages. Attention will be focused on the peasants and the élites residing in Zornoztegi, Zaballa, Aistra, San Miguel de Arganzón and Castillo de Treviño, five abandoned medieval settlements, situated in an area including the present province of Alava (Basque Country) and the Condado of Treviño (Castiglia and León).